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E as in elastomeric membranes

The Upper Franconians love to explain themselves to the world in comparisons. For example, if a thing is as "clear as lump broth," then everyone knows and understands it, even the kindergartner. But today our topic E is like elastomeric membranes and most of our contemporaries have their problems, because what's the use of an elastomeric membrane?

We at helsa have been asked this question many times, so today a simple, short and hopefully catchy explanation.

The first part of the word, elastomer is easy to describe. Elastomers are colloquially referred to simply as rubber and we all know and use rubber in many different areas of life. What would the housewife without canning rubber, the vehicle without rubber tires, the angler without rubber boots, the butcher without a rubber apron or the car without a rubber mat? In the form of small, round, black or red rings, we experience rubber as a sealing material. Mixers, lawn mowers, water heaters or boilers usually fail their services when a gasket weakens and needs to be replaced.

As early as the third century AD, Mayans observed how the milky sap of the rubber tree changes into a plastic-elastic solid when it dries out, and from it produces the first rubber balls. With the discovery of the vulcanization of natural rubber in 1838 by Charles Goodyear, rubber became a material that increasingly conquered the everyday lives of people. Today, we are supported by dozens of synthetic elastomers. For example, in the exploration of space and the shoals of the seas, they help, among other things, that our lives are becoming increasingly mobile and secure.

In the word membrane, we spontaneously think of biology lessons, eardrum, diaphragm, and cell membranes. We imagine something like a thin, vibrating skin or foil that separates two areas from each other and may have a selective permeability. With this idea, we are totally right, because as so often, the nature of technology was the inspiration for the topic of membranes. In various technical processes, elastic separation layers are needed that have very specific properties. Some have to be resistant to aggressive chemicals, withstand some great forces and be very stable and tear-resistant. Others should move in a defined way. Whether at 40 or -40 degrees Celsius. And still others may be permeable only to certain substances and impermeable to others. Just as numerous as the requirements are the materials from which membranes are made.

An elastomeric membrane is thus a vibrating defined separating layer, which either consists completely of rubber or has a rubber surface.

One of our core competences at helsa is the production of wafer-thin, gas-resistant membranes, which form the heart of the gas meter. But also for measuring and control devices, for example for the control of liquid flows, one needs elastomer membranes made by helsa.